Negotiations between German Chancellor Scholz and Russian President Putin began in Moscow | News from Germany about Germany

Negotiations between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin began in Moscow. Scholz flew to Moscow on Tuesday, February 15, after a visit to Kiev the day before, hoping to resolve the crisis over the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is Scholz’s first meeting with Putin since he took over the new German government at the end of 2021.

At a meeting with Putin, Scholz said that he was glad for the opportunity of a personal meeting to resolve the conflict. He noted the importance of settling relations between states through dialogue.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said that the talks would focus on “topical topics on the bilateral and international agenda, including issues related to the provision of long-term, legally fixed security guarantees for the Russian Federation and the settlement of the intra-Ukrainian conflict.” According to Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, one of the topics of the meeting will also be the launch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Scholz underwent PCR testing at the German Embassy

Upon arrival in Moscow, Olaf Scholz refused the offer of the Russian side to test him for coronavirus before meeting with Putin and preferred to have a PCR test, necessary for admission to the Kremlin, by a German doctor at the German Embassy in Moscow. Surrounded by the Chancellor, they reported that the German side had invited representatives of the Russian health authorities to attend the testing. The entire kit required for the test was brought from Germany.

Peskov said that Scholz’s refusal to undergo PCR testing by Russian doctors “will not affect the nature of the meeting, nor its content, nor its duration.” However, the talks will take place “at a greater than usual distance.” “All parties have their protocols, their preferences, and we have absolute respect and understanding for those protocols that our partners from Germany have,” the representative of the President of the Russian Federation said.

Before meeting with Putin, Scholz laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden. After the talks and a working breakfast, a joint press conference is planned, and in the evening the German Chancellor will fly to Berlin.

Similar negotiations were fruitless.

French President Emmanuel Macron flew to Moscow last week for talks with Putin. However, neither at this meeting, nor at other similar negotiations between Western leaders and international organizations and the Russian side, progress was made in resolving the conflict. The West is calling on Moscow to withdraw troops from the Ukrainian border and is threatening unprecedented sanctions. Russia, on the other hand, accuses Western countries of arming Ukraine and conducting maneuvers near the borders of the Russian Federation.

In the second half of 2021 and early 2022, the Russian Federation deployed more than 100 thousand military personnel to the annexed Crimea and to the border with Ukraine. In February, Russia and Belarus are holding joint exercises that the West has criticized as leading to further escalation. Meanwhile, on February 15, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the withdrawal of the military personnel participating in the maneuvers even before they were over.

See also:

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of the CIS

In December 1991, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus documented the collapse of the USSR. Moscow apparently hoped to maintain influence through the CIS and cheap gas supplies. But it turned out differently. The Russian Federation and Belarus created a union state, Ukraine increasingly looked to the West. In the photo: Leonid Kravchuk, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Boris Yeltsin and Stanislav Shushkevich during the official founding of the CIS in Almaty.

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

Legacy of the USSR and the Budapest Memorandum

Ukraine inherited from the USSR almost a million strong army and the 3rd largest nuclear arsenal in the world. Kiev refused the missiles, handing them over to Russia in exchange for economic assistance and security guarantees (Budapest Memorandum of 1994). While the West did not reciprocate Kiev and was not going to integrate it into its structures, the reaction of the Russian Federation was restrained. In the photo: Russian and US leaders Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton.

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

Cracks in Post-Soviet Friendship: Tuzla Conflict

The first major diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Kiev occurred under President Putin. In the fall of 2003, Russia suddenly began building a dam in the Kerch Strait towards the Ukrainian island of Tuzla. Kiev considered this an attempt to redistribute borders. The conflict was resolved after a personal meeting of the presidents. Construction was stopped, but the first cracks appeared on the facade of friendly relations between the two countries.

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

Orange Revolution 2004

In the presidential elections in Ukraine in 2004, the Russian Federation actively supported the pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych, but the Orange Revolution prevented him from winning amid accusations of fraud. Pro-Western politician Viktor Yushchenko became president. His victory became the starting point for changes in the policy of the Russian Federation, designed to prevent what Moscow calls “color revolutions.”

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

Shutting off Ukraine’s “gas valve” in the 2000s

During Viktor Yushchenko’s presidency, the Russian Federation twice shut off Ukraine’s “gas valve” – in 2006 and 2009, which led to interruptions in transit supplies to Europe. In the photo: a Gazprom employee at the Sudzha gas measuring station, 200 meters from the Ukrainian border, Kursk Region, Russia, 2009.

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

The promise of NATO membership

The key event happened in 2008. At the NATO summit in Bucharest, US President George W. Bush tried to get Ukraine and Georgia to receive a Membership Action Plan (MAP). Putin sharply objected, making it clear that he did not fully recognize the independence of Ukraine. As a result, Germany and France blocked Bush’s plan. Ukraine and Georgia were promised NATO membership, but no date.

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

Ukraine’s course towards the European Union

It was not possible to move quickly towards joining NATO, and Ukraine set a course for economic rapprochement with the EU. In the summer of 2013, the Russian Federation began to exert massive pressure on Kiev, almost cutting off Ukrainian exports at the border. The Yanukovych government has suspended preparations for signing an association agreement with Brussels. Soon protests began in Ukraine, in February 2014 Yanukovych fled to Russia.

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

Russian annexation of Crimea

A power vacuum emerged in Ukraine, in March 2014 Russia annexed Crimea. This was a turning point, the beginning of an undeclared war. Pictured: Russian military in Crimea (Simferopol, March 2014).

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

War in Donbass

At the same time, Russian and local paramilitary structures provoked an outbreak of separatism in the Donbass, “people’s republics” were proclaimed in Donetsk and Lugansk, which were led by people who had come from the Russian Federation in unmarked uniforms. Kiev reacted slowly, waiting for the presidential elections at the end of May 2014, and only then decided on a large-scale use of force.

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

Birth of the Normandy Format

In early June 2014, in France, at events marking the 70th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, newly elected President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko met for the first time with his Russian counterpart Putin through the mediation of the leaders of Germany and France. This is how the “Norman format” was born.

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

“Ilovaisky cauldron”

In the summer of 2014, the Ukrainian army began to push back the separatists, but at the end of August, Russia, according to Kiev, used its army on a large scale in the Donbass. Moscow denies this. The peak of the conflict was the defeat of the Ukrainian forces near Ilovaisk. The war along the entire front line ended with the signing of a ceasefire in Minsk in September, which was quickly broken.

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

Positional war continues

In early 2015, the separatists went on a broad offensive. Kiev accused Moscow of using an unmarked army, the Russian Federation denied everything. Ukrainian forces were defeated near the city of Debaltseve. Then, with the mediation of Germany and France, “Minsk-2” was signed, an agreement that still remains the main document for the settlement of the conflict. None of its points has been fully implemented.

A Brief History of the Ukrainian-Russian Confrontation

The concentration of Russian troops on the border of Ukraine

In 2021, there was a new aggravation. Russia twice, in spring and autumn, drew up its troops to the western borders. Ukrainian and Western intelligence reports about the threat of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. To defuse the situation, a series of international negotiations took place in the West. However, the Russian Federation demands guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO and lets know that it is not going to withdraw troops yet.

Author: Roman Goncharenko